235 their first major professional expe- rience; some got to' dance big Petipa variations. But this gesture of Maka- rova's, so misunderstood yet so reason- able (what corps of professionals out- side New York City Ballet could have shown as high a level of training and style?), was doomed by conflicts that were not foreseen. The "Paquita" excerpt was, from a dance lover's point of view, the high- light of the season-especially when Nancy Raffa, a sixteen-year-old so- loist, took over the leading role from the limited T erabust. Then there- were all those American girls in their su- premely difficult variations. Makarova often speaks of nurturing American dancers in the style that nurtured her Perhaps it is pointless to repeat that one cannot carry out pilot projects in crossbreeding in the glare of a Broad- way engagement. The revelation of Makarova and Company, though, is that the project itself may be misguid- ed. In "Pas de Dix," the dancers had the Balanchine choreography right under their skin. But "Paquita" was a frail-fairy pageant, filled with perverse hope: no matter how well the dancers did, in the end it was struggle rather than triumph that one applauded. Not long ago, the Dance Theatre of Har- lem gave us a "Paquita" divertisse- ment that was a triumph. But Alexan- dra Danilova's staging is so different from Makarova's as to amount to a different work. Two Russian balleri- nas from the same school forty years apart teach two different "Paquita"s. The conflict isn't be- tween student and pro- fessional levels of per- formance; it's between Petrograd and Lenin- grad. The way Amer- ican dancers under- stand Russian clas- sicism-"Petipa" for short-is the way the St. Petersburg-Petro- grad generation of émi- gre Russians has taught it to them. With these Russians, it has always been the rule that the teachings of the academy are shaped by the findings of choreography. Of all the numberless dif- ferences between our local accent in Petipa and the current native one, I should say the greatest derives from DANCING Dancers at a Gathering M AKAROVA AND COMPANY, the knee operation, failed to appear one latest ballet-on-Broadway ex- evening, a number of people demanded periment, was produced by their money back and were entitled to James M. Nederlander in a four-week it; the ads had assured them that she run at the Uris and publicized as the would dance at every performance. début of a new ballet company, but it The critics began to growl that ballet had all the earmarks of a popular companies are not born on Broadway. showcase. Stars drawn from the in- The public, which could make no ternational circuit rotated in the sense of the cast changes, deletions, kinds of roles that stars do everywhere. and other eruptions in programming Besides Natalia Makarova, the balle- (a solo by Dowell came and went with rinas were the Italian Elisabetta T era- mysterious irregularity all through the bust and the Canadian Karen Kain. season ), was further put off by the There were appearances by F ernan- long intermissions and the insubstan- do Bujones, Peter Schaufuss, and tiallook of the ballets. The two Ma- Denys Ganio, the French soloist. An- karova-Dowell numbers-a Béjart pas thony Dowell supported Makarova de deux set to a Bach sonata (the one throug hout the run; Cynthia Greg- that was first danced here a decade ago ory was given a ballet of her own. by Suzanne Farrell and Jorge Donn), To the public, they looked like ballet and "Ondine," a new duet by the Aus- celebrities in another of those roundups tralian choreographer Barry More- that Nederlander puts on from time land-exhibited at a naked extreme to time in his largest and least invit- the capacity of these two dancers for ing N ew York theatre. (At the Uris, making something out of nothing. a schlockier midtown version of the The fancy-dress number, Lorca Mas- State Theatre, live music always sounds sine's "Vendetta," was about gypsy as if it were on tape. Ballets take place love, gypsy backbends, flared nostrils, on a stage that can be dominated only bangles, gold teeth; Makarova swooned by the most belligerent musicals.) But, and fought off Ganio, Bujones, and unlike Nureyev and Friends, Makaro- Dowell in turn. The audience took it va and Company was equipped with for comedy. And the audience took for a corps de ballet, newly commissioned inadequacy the eager, unseasoned works, and specially designed sets trouping of the young corps de ballet. and costumes, by Rouben Ter-Aru- Makarova's recruits were mostly tunian. Impractically, it attempted from the School of American Ballet. repertory in a showcase format. Many of these students were getting "Paquita, Act II" is an excerpt from the [\ Kirov's Petipa reper- tory which Makarova was staging in this country for the first time. Obviously in- tended as a company vehicle, it contains a pas de deux, an inter- polated complete pas de trois, and a string of five solo variations. The ballet no sooner got on than it suc- cumbed to the normal allotment of injuries and replacements. The same thing happened to "Pas de Dix " Bal- , anchine's condensa- tion of the Hungar- ian divertissement in ((Raymonda." When Makarova who re- cently underwent a (J - EGOMANIAC I